SAN FRANCISCO - The San Francisco mayor said Tuesday that he will file an official misconduct charge against the city's sheriff over a domestic-violence case involving his wife, a Venezuelan actress.

Mayor Ed Lee made the announcement after a defiant Sheriff Ross Mirkarimi said he has no plans to resign despite the threat of the ethics inquiry.

"I wanted to and have taken full responsibility," Mirkarimi told reporters outside San Francisco City Hall.

A judge on Monday sentenced Mirkarimi to three years of probation and a year of counseling after the sheriff pleaded guilty to misdemeanor false imprisonment.

Mirkarimi said his actions on New Year's Eve that left his wife's arm bruised did not constitute official misconduct within the meaning of the law. He declined to elaborate.

Venezuelans and other Latin Americans have followed the case closely because of the celebrity of his wife, Eliana Lopez, a former telenovela star.

Lee on Monday told Mirkarimi to resign or he would start the process of removing him from office for official misconduct.

Attorney Lidia Stiglich told the Associated Press that Mirkarimi will hire another attorney to represent him before the city's Ethics Commission and Board of Supervisors.

It would take the votes of nine of the 11 supervisors to remove Mirkarimi. The matter would first be referred to the ethics panel.

Mirkarimi pleaded guilty to misdemeanor false imprisonment in exchange for the dropping of three other misdemeanor charges of domestic violence, child endangerment and dissuading a witness. The plea deal was struck as a jury was picked for a trial that promised to embarrass the sheriff with testimony about infidelity, his temper and other intimate details.

San Francisco District Attorney George Gascon said the false-imprisonment charge was a domestic-violence plea and the conviction was just as serious as the charges that were dropped.